


Repairing the Rift

by ChokolatteJedi



Series: Say A Little Prayer [4]
Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Aftermath, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Introspection, Judgemental Chloe, Lux (Lucifer TV), POV Multiple, Robbery, Texting, Time Skips, Tribe Night (Lucifer TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-08
Updated: 2019-05-10
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:02:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23185948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChokolatteJedi/pseuds/ChokolatteJedi
Summary: Chloe isn't sure how to interpret Lucifer's actions after Pierce's death (canon-divergence)
Series: Say A Little Prayer [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1664404
Comments: 4
Kudos: 146





	1. Florence Nightingale Kink

**Author's Note:**

> An idea that I was kicking around, and after 4x01 I knew exactly how to end it.
> 
> As with the earlier installments in this series, this is not exactly Chloe bashing, but she is pretty judgemental towards Lucifer here. Like, you know, the beginning of season 4 in canon. >.>
> 
> Set right after "Say a Little Prayer"

Chloe wasn’t sure what she was expecting when she arrived at Lux, two Saturdays after Lucifer gave his statement on the Pierce shooting. Finding Lucifer, still in his wheelchair, playing a set on the piano in the center of the dance floor, was not something she had ever pictured.

Lucifer had never been the kind to reveal his weaknesses, save for the time he kept pretending to limp around her to make her feel guilty for shooting him. Usually he just shrugged off injuries like they were nothing, and honestly she had expected the wheelchair to be long gone by now. ‘Lucifer’ and ‘serious injury’ just didn’t compute, in her experience - especially when he went off on one of his ‘I’m immortal’ kicks.

Then there was the whole ‘blood pack’ thing, as Amenadiel had explained. Not to mention Lucifer’s hot and cold relationship with his so-called ‘wings.’ Chloe had been genuinely shocked to see those scars on his back, and when he refused to let her touch them, she thought she had gotten a glimpse of true vulnerability in her partner.

Then came the sting where he had gone undercover with Pierce, and Lucifer had given the entire neighborhood, and her surveillance car, an eyeful on the front lawn. More importantly, Chloe had seen his back, with her binoculars, and there wasn’t even a hint of a scar. Perhaps he could have found a plastic surgeon who was just that good, though it did beg the question of why he hadn’t done that before. But, with so much time on her own to think, and watching Lucifer playacting at marriage, - not exactly lying, but not exactly _not_ lying - she couldn’t help but think of another reason.

Maybe the reason Lucifer’s back was so perfect now wasn’t because it had been fixed, but because the scars had never been real. Maybe they were just a prosthetic, a prop, like the blood packs, and that was the real reason Lucifer hadn’t let her touch them. Lucifer had shown a knowledge of prop weapons during that stupid, aggravating, knife case, after all, so he wasn’t unfamiliar with special effects. Add to that Ella’s conviction that he was a Method actor, well, there might be something to all that. So there was a chance that showing her his back, blaming it on his dad and then himself and then Maze, like he couldn’t decide which lie to go with, was just another way of manipulating her, like the exaggerated limp, or the macho competition bullshit he had pulled with M- Pierce.

Honestly, Chloe wasn’t sure what she thought. There were moments when she believed in Lucifer, her partner, who wouldn’t lie to her. And in other moments, every question she had, every doubtful observation from Dan, and every loose end she couldn’t tie down would swirl together in her mind to make her wonder if maybe their entire partnership was one big manipulation. Or if maybe he did belong in a mental institution, for real. It was a toss up between that and prison most days, honestly.

So, no, part of Chloe had expected to find Lucifer lording over the bar at Lux like usual, his wheelchair act in the precinct and his request for leave just another manipulation. That was the part of her who had been frustratedly trying to contact him all day after the… the incident three weeks ago, and who had endlessly tried to interpret his single text amidst the radio silence the week after that.

Seeing Lucifer still in the wheelchair, showing weakness in front of his customers, made Chloe hesitate, but, as the frustrated, sick-of-being-manipulated part of her brain pointed out, Maze had demanded that they hold tonight’s Tribe get-together in Lux, so Lucifer could had known she was coming, and still be putting on an act for her. Chloe hated herself for thinking these kinds of thoughts about her partner, but just as she couldn’t let Palmetto go, her gut was telling her that ‘something was up’, and had been ever since they’d… well… well, most of the last few months actually.

Chloe hid in the shadows above the stairs for a few minutes, watching Lucifer play, her detective mind analyzing Lucifer’s appearance. His playing - something vaguely familiar that she couldn’t quite place - sounded as good as ever, and just as he had at the precinct, Lucifer appeared put together. He was wearing a dark purple, almost black shirt, again without a waistcoat or jacket. Of course, Chloe acknowledged, if his back was still hurting, he might not want something restrictive like that, so this casual - for Lucifer - outfit made sense. She had snuck a peek at his medical file and knew that the wounds in his back were right about where his vest would cinch. From this distance, his hair and eyeliner seemed perfect as usual, but Chloe thought she saw a hint of shadows under his eyes.

Lucifer finished, to much applause, and he flashed a wide smile around the room. Then he took a quick drink from his glass and started another song. Whatever he was drinking was clear, instead of the usual amber, Chloe noted. He had also been drinking water in the precinct, she had noticed.

For someone like Lucifer, whom she could literally never recall drinking anything but obvious alcohol, that spoke volumes. Most medication couldn’t be taken with alcohol, and any doctor with sense would have told Lucifer to cut out the drinking while recovering. It was more surprising that he would _listen_ than that he would have been told to stop. Of course, on the “he’s conning me” side of things, there were plenty of clear alcohols behind the bar at Lux, like Linda’s favorite martinis, which Lucifer could be disguising as water.

Huffing in frustration, Chloe gave up on stalking her wayward partner. Her thoughts had been traveling in the same or similar circles for the last two weeks, and it hadn’t done her any good. She wasn’t sure what more she could learn from an apparently ordinary night at Lux.

Quickly moving down to the bar, Chloe found Patrick, who immediately grabbed her favorite beer and then four shot glasses. “Your turn,” he teased; clearly Ella and Linda were already here, if Chloe was bringing a new round of shots.

“Where are they?” she asked. Usually they did shots at the bar, but she didn’t see the other girls.

“Boss’s booth,” Patrick said as he filled the shots. Chloe spun around and, sure enough, the other three were at the round booth where Lucifer usually held court.

“Oh,” Chloe tried to hide her disappointment. Even though they held Tribe night at Lux every month or so, they usually didn’t hang out with Lucifer while they did. Some nights he didn’t even come downstairs while they were there. Though she had known that Maze being unusually clingy was the reason they were here tonight, she hadn’t translated that to Lucifer intruding onto girls’ night.

When Patrick finished, Chloe quickly gathered the shots and beer together in both hands and made her way over to the others, pasting a smile on her face. The table in front of them already had several empty shot glasses on it, as well as two full ones tucked to the side - waiting for her - and Chloe deposited her load in the clearest space.

“Chloe!” Ella cheered, jumping up to give her a hug. Chloe returned it gratefully. Ella had been a little short with her since the incident, and Chloe was pleased that she was happy to see her tonight, even if the alcohol was contributing to that. It was bad enough that half of the precinct was looking at her like she had pulled another Palmetto, just because she had been dating M- Pierce, but somehow having Ella - part of her Tribe - against her as well was worse.

At least with Palmetto, she’d had Dan’s grudging support - though now that she knew that he was behind it she had all new ideas of how grudging that support had been - but now he was dealing with Charlotte’s death, and wanted his own space. Sadly, her history meant that Chloe only had two friends in the precinct - well, three if she included Lucifer. To be on the outs with one of them while the other two were taking leave… well, it was very quiet at her desk nowadays.

Ella pulled away, only to be replaced with an equally enthusiastic Linda, which meant that she had started drinking a while back. Linda didn’t tend to get touchy-feely until her third martini - second if they were doing as many shots as it appeared.

Maze did not hug her, but did smile and greet her with “Chloe” instead of “Decker,” which was progress. Things were still tense with them, but Maze had accepted she had crossed a line, and had temporarily moved out, so they were back on neutral instead of negative terms.

Much like the rest of Chloe’s relationships, it seemed.

Thank God that Trixie was at a friend’s sleepover birthday party for the weekend, because suddenly Chloe really wanted to get drunk tonight.

“Drink up! You’re behind!” Ella said, grabbing two of the new shots and handing one to Chloe. Chloe did as instructed, and then quickly downed one of the other shots that had been waiting for her. Time to get started on that drunk thing.

oOo

Some time later, Chloe had finished her beer and moved on to rum and cokes, and Lucifer had finished his set, but not left the piano, and she finally felt ready to bring him up. “So what’s he doing down there?” Chloe asked, jutting her chin at Lucifer.

He had spun his chair around so that his back was to the piano, and currently had a hot young man perched on his lap, apparently doing his best to remove Lucifer’s tonsils with his tongue.

“It’s called sex, Decker,” Maze teased, and Chloe shot her a withering look.

“I’m aware of that, thank you.” she bit back. “I meant him being down there, in the… I expected him to be up here with you, or… somewhere…”

“He’s got a little portable ramp,” Ella explained eagerly, “but it’s a bitch to move it around when this place is so crowded, so he said he would rather pick one level and stick to it until the crowd thins down a little.”

Maze jerked her thumb to the side, and Chloe realized that the ramp, which appeared to be made of black aluminum or plastic, was actually leaning against her end of the booth, blending in to the shadows so well that Chloe hadn’t noticed it before now.

“Tonight was the first night he felt up to playing a full set,” Linda added, only slurring her words slightly. “So he wanted to be down there, instead of up… or around…”

“Oh!” Lucifer would be the kind to judge his recovery by his ability to play the piano, though having sex would have been Chloe’s first guess. But she was also a little relieved that he wouldn’t be returning to their couch and invading Tribe night. It also made more sense as to why the others had taken over his booth instead of sticking to the bar, if Lucifer wouldn’t be using it.

Chloe glanced back down at Lucifer, and found that the young man was still sitting on his lap, but now a blonde woman was leaning over Lucifer’s shoulder and kissing him from behind. Clearly the fact that he was in a wheelchair wasn’t hampering his ability to slut his way through Lux’ patrons. In fact, it might be helping, Chloe realized, if any of them had some kind of Florence Nightingale kink. Because of course Lucifer would use his injury as an excuse to hook up.

“How long before he comes back to work?” Ella asked, breaking through her train of thought. “Or, not work, since clearly he’s working here at Lux tonight, but work with us?”

“Probably another week or two,” Maze answered, to Chloe’s slight surprise. She would have assumed that Ella was talking to Linda.

“I thought the department standard for a gunshot wound was two weeks?” Linda asked. “Though, Chloe, you’re back, right?”

“Usually,” Chloe replied, turning away from Lucifer’s raunchy display, “but that officer would then be put on desk duty for another few weeks. I was shot in the vest, not the body, so I jumped right to desk duty this time. Since Lucifer doesn’t do paperwork, there’s not much point in having him come sit at a desk.” She shrugged. “Plus, he’s a consultant, not an officer, so it's different.”

“He could still come in and do the brainstorming stuff,” Ella said with a hint of a pout. “Or questioning people. Somewhere there’s a happy medium between him being out in the field or ignoring paperwork.”

“Well, it's up to him,” Chloe shrugged again, then slung back her last shot. Honestly, after everything with Pierce, she wouldn’t mind a bit of a break before working with Lucifer again. If he wanted to stick to Lux and “recuperate” instead of coming back in, she was fine with that.

“Okay, enough about Lucifer,” Linda said a moment later. “Maze, tell us about your latest bounty!”

“Ooh, sauna girl, yes!” Ella cheered. “You promised to tell about her!”

And with that fortuitous change of topic, Chloe resolved not to think about Lucifer again tonight.


	2. 459 in Progress

Chloe’s resolve not to think about Lucifer lasted most of a week, with occasional slips that she would firmly push out of her mind as soon as she realized she had made them.

That changed when she got the alert from dispatch; unis had been called to Lux, and there was still a trip on the address that immediately called Chloe as well. Of course, that didn’t immediately occur to Chloe when her phone buzzed at five AM Friday morning and woke her out of a sound sleep.

Her first thought at the sight of a text saying _459 in progress at Lux,_ was that Lucifer was drunk dialing her, or that the code was some sort of strange sext. Finally, her muzzyness cleared enough for her to register the text’s sender, and to realize what it was saying. Burglary in progress at Lux.

Chloe’s body began moving automatically, getting her out of bed and pulling clean clothes out of her closet even as she struggled to get her brain in gear. Trixie was at Dan’s, for the first time since Charlotte, so she wouldn’t need to call the emergency sitter or worry about asking a neighbor to get Trix to school on time.

It wasn’t until she was half into her jeans that Chloe realized what she was doing. This wasn’t a homicide, just a burglary. The only reason she was getting the call was because it was at Lux, but there were other officers who were perfectly capable of taking care of that. Chloe didn’t need to rush over to the club and flash her badge, or get Lucifer out of trouble. He was a grown adult, and he was perfectly capable of getting himself out of bad situations, as he’d so recently proven. Or, more likely, at getting Maze to do it for him.

Chloe sank down onto her bed, her jeans around her knees. This was the moment, she realized, that was going to define her relationship with Lucifer from here on out. Was she going to go chasing after him like he was a wayward puppy? Or like she was his mother? Or would she let him deal with this situation like any other adult would have to?

She had allowed Lucifer and his… Luciferness to break down her boundaries. She had treated him like she would a partner on the force, but he had never reciprocated that. He was only a consultant, after all, and she had let him charm his way into being something more. She still wasn’t even sure that he wasn’t manipulating her somehow.

Dan had been out of line when he blamed Lucifer for everything that Mar- Pierce did, but he wasn’t entirely wrong either, was he? From the beginning she’d suspected Lucifer was up to something shady, and he’d dropped more than enough hints since to confirm that gut feeling over and over. Christ, he’d smoked pot and talked about how much he loved drugs right in front of her! Dan had said that Lux’s books were too clean, but Chloe had let that slide too.

She’d told Lucifer, in the alley, that she wasn’t going to humor his metaphors anymore, and she intended to stick to that. But in the four weeks since, she’d wondered how much of their relationship was built on those metaphors. How much had she let slide because she was indulging him? How many lines had she let blur, after repeatedly saying she wouldn’t?

Maybe tonight - this morning - she could redraw one of those lines. She was a homicide detective; she didn’t need to stick her nose into a simple burglary at Lux. For all she knew, Lucifer wasn’t even involved! She would let whichever officers were on duty do their jobs, and she’d maybe look at the report when she got in to work. That was a perfectly acceptable reaction to the situation that didn’t cross any lines.

Decision made, Chloe slipped her jeans back off and slid under her covers. And if she kept her phone in her hand, her eyes on it, waiting for an update until she fell back asleep, well, no one else would know.

oOo

It wasn’t until everything was over with, and he was perched back in his booth with a glass of whiskey, that Lucifer realized that the Detective hadn’t shown up.

Not that he needed her to, of course. It was a simple attempted burglary, after all. The club had been closed, with just one of his managers, Eva, and two of the girls finishing out the counts for the night.

Lucifer and Maze had been upstairs, actually, having a little fun to celebrate his wings finally finishing healing, when Eva tripped the silent alarm behind the counter. Lucifer would need to rebuild his wing muscles before he could fly again, but for a short-distance line-of-sight trip, he could slip through the celestial plane and essentially teleport himself from the balcony down to the street below.

With Maze taking the elevator as a distraction, Lucifer completed the pincer by heading for the front door. He found his morning guard, Kyle, out cold, but thankfully alive, and Lucifer felt his newly-restored devil face itching to emerge.

Slipping inside, Lucifer saw five ski-masked gunmen, split between the trio at the bar, who were slowly counting money into a bag, and the descending elevator.

“Well, that will never do,” he whispered to himself. He couldn’t change, not in front of his human employees, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have a few other tricks up his sleeve. None of these would-be-robbers were watching the door, or even the stairs, so Lucifer was easily able to slink into the club unnoticed.

He caught Celia’s eye as he snuck up on the two at the bar, and gestured that she should duck down. He waited until he saw her shift towards Eva and Lori, ready to grab them, before he made his move.

Both thugs were leaning against the bar, side by side, and one was even resting his gun on the counter. They were laughably easy to take out. One hand to grab the gun that was still a threat, and with the other he punched the same goon in the side of the head, slamming him into his buddy. Both dropped like dead weight, and both let go of their guns in the process. Lucifer slammed the one he’d grabbed down beside the second abandoned gun and then peeked over the bar.

Seeing his three employees huddled there safely, he smiled. “Good girls. Stay out of sight.”

“Hey!” came the shout from behind him, and Lucifer leaned back up, turning slowly to face the three goons who had been staking out the elevator.

“Hay is for horses,” Lucifer snarked, smirking at the remaining idiots. He only had to distract them for a few more seconds, by his count.

The trio exchanged incredulous glances, their guns still trained on him, and Lucifer tucked his hands into his pockets nonchalantly. “I’m sorry, is that pejorative?” he asked, recalling an absurd meme that Ella had sent him earlier in the week. “I can never keep up with what PETA finds offensive these days. Should I have said that hay is for haystacks?”

“What the-?” the middle goon managed to ask, before Maze leaped out of the silently opening elevator behind them and tackled him to the ground.

Lucifer ducked to the side, behind a column, to avoid the inevitable surprised gunshot. There were two itchy trigger fingers, it turned out, but Lucifer never felt the tell-tale tickle that said that yet another shirt had been ruined.

A moment later, the scuffle ended and Maze growled, “clear.”

“Lovely,” Lucifer ducked back out from behind his protective column and strode back to the bar. “Are you three alright?” he asked.

The three girls emerged slowly, but Eva nodded at him as she stood. “No injuries, boss.”

“Good. Well, while Maze and I make sure that these… miscreants don’t get back up, will one of you please go greet LAPD outside and make sure that they don’t come in shooting?”

“Sure,” Lori said, quickly composing herself, and Lucifer nodded in approval. No one at Lux got promoted to closer unless they could handle both large amounts of money and the knowledge that some miscreant might slip in and try to steal said money. None of his count out girls were wilting flowers.

By the time Lori had slipped around the bar, Celia had found the zip ties that they kept beneath it and had passed them over. Lucifer and Maze made short work of trussing up their would-be robbers while Eve poured everyone a bracing drink.

They didn’t have long to wait before Lori returned with two uniformed officers that Lucifer recognized. “Ah! Officers Luis and Rosa! I wish our reunion had been under better circumstances.”

“Kyle’s awake and with the paramedics,” Lori muttered to him as she hopped up onto a barstool and accepted her offering from Eva.

It took a relatively short amount of time for everyone to recount their version of the events to the LAPD duo, and not much longer for the rest of the officers to haul off the five unconscious thugs. Kyle hadn’t needed to be hospitalized, which was a relief. Lucifer gave his employees full health benefits, of course, but he’d rather they not get hurt and have to use them.

Once the officers had left, and Maze was out front standing in for Kyle until a backup bouncer could arrive, Lucifer had settled into his usual booth with a glass and a bottle. He wasn’t exactly guarding the girls as they finished closing out the drawers for the night, but he wasn’t exactly _not_.

And, as he settled back with his glass of whiskey, Lucifer finally realized that the Detective had never arrived. Not that he was expecting her, per se, but she usually seemed to know when something went down at Lux and happened to pop up, flashing her badge at the unis and demanding to know what he had been up to.

He knew she was on restricted duty because of her own injury, but he didn’t think that applied to extracurricular policing, like showing up at Lux for non-homicide-related issues. Perhaps she had been unable to get a babysitter for her spawn, what with Maze not residing there at the moment. Honestly, the Detective had presented more than one puzzle to him over the last few years, and this was just another to add to the list.

Lucifer pulled out his phone and considered texting her, just to let her know that everyone was alright, in case she was in the process of rushing over there. Pulling up his texts, Lucifer was surprised to find that he had to scroll to find her, and that across from her name it listed the date from three weeks ago. Had it really been three weeks since he’d texted her? That didn’t seem right.

Tapping her name, he was further surprised to see that, in fact, Lucifer hadn’t actually texted the Detective at that time. The last dozen texts had all been from her, asking where he was or telling him off for letting her worry. Then came the text that Maze had sent, when he was unconscious, another dozen concerned or annoyed messages from her… the last time Lucifer himself had actually texted her was before they had confronted Pierce.

Lucifer frowned to himself. While the one-sided texting while he was recovering made sense, it was the past three weeks that confused him. Backing out of their texting history, he scrolled back up and saw the names that had somehow migrated above the Detective’s. There were, of course, several one offs and favors, his boat manager, and of course Patrick and Eva at Lux. But there, at the top: three names followed by the emojis they had picked out for themselves last weekend while watching movies and changing his ringtones.

Maze, with her little skull and crossbones, Ella, and her DNA double helix, and Linda, with her little blonde face-palming woman. And of course their group chat, which they had decorated with several bird emojis, to, supposedly, represent his flock. He suspected a more insulting reason, but none of the girls had cracked and told him, yet.

Contemplating his phone for a moment, and then glancing at the time, Lucifer sent a quick text to Linda. _Sorry to interrupt your kickboxing video, but I’m afraid I’ve made a bit of a mistake, and I’m not sure how to fix it_. Then he took a screencap of his text list, and the last weeks of crossed-wires texts between him and the Detective, and sent those as well. _I didn’t mean to, but it appears that I’ve been ignoring her_.

After a moment’s thought, Lucifer added, _I know you’re off the clock, but as a friend… ?_

To his relief, Linda replied a moment later, in his mind. _Just this once, because it appears time sensitive, I’ll let you interrupt my workout,_ the words were serious, but Lucifer could hear the teasing in her tone. Yet another reason to prefer prayers to text messages: tonal clues.

 _Also, this is fairly simple to fix, so I can multitask,_ Linda continued. _Text her and tell her the truth. You’ve been dealing with your recovery since “the incident”_ and he could hear her mental air quotes, _and other things in your life have taken priority, but you realized you’ve been neglecting your friendship and want to fix it._

Lucifer considered that for a moment, then texted back. _Simply telling the truth, eh? What a novel concept._

Linda’s laugh quickly filled his mind. _Novel indeed,_ she teased.

And perhaps she was right, Lucifer thought. It wasn’t even “a” truth, it was simply “the” truth, if phrased in a way that wouldn’t deliberately hurt the Detective, like “I’ve been hanging out with other people and forgot you” would. For a devil who prided himself on always telling the truth, it should have been an obvious answer. And yet, with the Detective, things hadn’t seemed too obvious recently.

Well, especially compared to the ease he now felt with Ella and the rest of his “flock,” but even before then, for the past few months, his rhythm with the Detective had been off. It was easy to blame Cain, but that wouldn’t be the whole truth.

But, perhaps, he could start them getting back on the right track. If it could really be as simple as sending a text message.


	3. Radio Silence

Chloe woke to her phone buzzing in her hand. According to her bedside clock, it was almost 7:30, when her alarm would go off anyway, so she tried not to be too disgruntled. Of course, the annoying boing that followed the buzz told her that the text was from Lucifer, which tilted her back towards the disgruntled category. And not only because he had somehow found a way to lock her phone settings and prevent her from changing his text alert back from that awful boing.

She suddenly remembered why her phone was in her hand, and Chloe dug her face further into her pillow. The message from dispatch had come in just before five; whoever they sent should be long done with Lucifer by now. There clearly hadn’t been a death, or she would have gotten called by dispatch a while ago, and if Lucifer had, for some reason, been arrested, he would have gotten a call, not a chance to text her from his own phone.

So, with those worse-case scenarios out of the way, and with how much time had passed, her best guess was that Lucifer was done with the unis, still awake, and bored, so he decided to whine about why she hadn’t shown up to save him this morning.

And honestly, that was not worth waking up five minutes early for.

Shoving her phone under the other pillow, Chloe resolved to ignore it until her alarm went off and she’d had a cup of coffee.

oOo

Suitably fortified, Chloe sat at the counter with her second cup of coffee and a little toast and finally opened Lucifer’s text.

 _Detective, I know you’re probably feeding your spawn right now_ \- it started, and Chloe had to acknowledge that yes, if Trixie hadn’t been at Dan’s, she would have been up and fixing breakfast when he texted, instead of sleeping in. Well that made his timing slightly more tolerable. She kept reading.

- _but I didn’t think this should wait even longer. I realized, this morning, that it had been an unacceptable amount of time since we have spoken or texted. This is my fault: I’ve been dealing with my recovery since… well, you know. And I’ve let other things take priority without exactly realizing it. But, as I said, this morning it became clear that I’ve been neglecting our friendship - our partnership - and want to fix it._

“Huh.” Chloe took a deep sip of her coffee and then reread the text. Lucifer accepting responsibility for his actions was a nice change, as was the lack of any excuses about angels or demons or whatever. Perhaps their talk in the alley before… well perhaps it had done some good. She was fairly certain she knew the identity of two of his “other priorities”, as she had seen them making out with him last Friday.

Although, remembering that made her also remember that she had been at Lux and hadn’t said a word to him. True, it was Girls’ Night, but she could have gone down to the piano early on and at least said ‘Hello.’

Scrolling up from this last message, Chloe saw the one before it; from the Sunday night before that. _I’m recovering well, thank you for asking. I’ll be at work again tomorrow, if you deign to show up._

She had sent that in a fit of anger, after she’d overreached while making dinner for Trix, and pulled at her bruised muscles. More importantly, she’d sent it the night before Lucifer arrived at the precinct in a wheelchair, after apparently being unconscious for a week from his far more serious injury.

Lucifer might have thought their lack of communication was entirely his fault, but Chloe was adult enough to admit that it was hers too. She’d been so embarrassed to find out how badly he’d been injured, and at the reminder that he’d been hurt while _protecting her_... after a week of pissed off texts, she hadn’t said a word to him after seeing him in the precinct that day. And even that conversation had mostly been about how he hadn’t texted her back; learning that he’d been hurt so badly that he was unconscious had left her wrong-footed and she’d acted as stubborn as Trixie.

Ella had even called her on it that Friday. She’d accused Chloe of only ever looking for the negative with Lucifer, and she’d explained about the second Vegas trip. Looking back at it, Chloe could see why Lucifer would have kept the truth from her. She had been very upset when he married Candy, and had given him hell for it that whole week. Not without good reason, mind, but still. It would be just like Lucifer to not want to drag up those bad memories again, on her birthday of all days, just like… just like Linda had said at the time. And Chloe had ignored her.

It was just Lucifer’s bad luck that Candy’s attack had happened on that day, or that in the past she had made him feel like something as huge as his wife dying was the kind of thing he couldn’t share with her as his partner. Even after the fact, she had made it impossible for him to talk to her about it. Come to think of it, Ella hadn’t mentioned - Chloe didn’t even know, right now, if Candy had ended up being dead or alive. Lucifer hadn’t seemed that upset when he came back, so maybe she was fine, but he had done that whole sleeping confession thing, so… she just wasn’t sure. And, as his partner, she should know that kind of thing.

No, it had taken Ella, several months later, to set her straight. And that was on Lucifer’s behalf, not her own. Chloe wasn’t sure how many comments Ella had heard, but she must have been upset by some of them…

And yet, even after Ella’s revelation on Friday, Chloe had still sent Lucifer an angry text message on Sunday, never apologized, and then ignored him this past week.

Those two weeks of radio silence were as much her fault as his. Maybe even more. And this morning…

Chloe had a sudden vision of Lucifer, still in his wheelchair, being held at gunpoint by a robber, trying to bluff his way out of trouble when he couldn’t even dodge. Was he still even in the chair? She didn’t know. Of course she didn’t know, because she’d still been avoiding him.

Chloe dropped her face into her hands. She’d even ignored his text for an hour because she was put out at him for being in trouble earlier. And now he was sitting there with a “Read” message while she angsted over her recent life choices.

“Get it together, Decker,” she told herself. “You can’t have Lucifer being the adult in this partnership; you’ll never hear the end of it.”

Grabbing her phone again, Chloe quickly typed. _It isn’t totally your fault. I’ve also been a bit preoccupied._ After sending that, she considered it for a moment before adding, _I see there was some excitement at Lux this morning. Is everyone ok?_

The answer came back quicker than she expected, and Chloe felt her heart sink a little at the thought that Lucifer had, indeed, been waiting for her reply for the last hour. _Only some contusions and shaken nerves for the good guys_.

She quickly replied. _That’s a relief. Do you need to come in today and give a statement?_

 _Oh no, Officer Luis already took care of that._ Lucifer’s reply was followed by the dots that indicated that he was still typing, so Chloe waited before she replied. And waited. She wasn’t sure what would be worse: another long text, or a short one that he had clearly agonized over?

Finally, he came through. _If you’d like, you’re welcome to swing by and see for yourself. Though I’m sure Maze will tell you everything tomorrow._

Chloe’s heart sank a little lower at the realization that Lucifer had been so hesitant to invite her over. Yes, Maze could tell her everything tomorrow at Tribe Night, but normally Lucifer would be falling over himself to share the story first. Of course, usually Chloe would have been there herself, as soon as Dispatch called, to hear it the first time around.

It was time for her to do her part to repair this rift between them. _Of course I’ll stop by. Knowing you, you haven’t eaten. Want me to bring some breakfast over?_

The pause was much shorter this time, and Chloe smiled for her success. _Well, if you’re taking orders, I’ll have one of those little egg-in-the-hole sandwiches your spawn is so fond of. They’re surprisingly good._

Chloe didn’t have all the ingredients, but she could swing by the store and then make it at Lux. It was better hot, anyway. Normally she wouldn’t go to so much trouble, but right now she owed it to Lucifer.


End file.
